The poorer you are, the higher the costs and risks of cash
become. Anyone you know can beg you for a few bucks or steal the
hard-earned money that you're trying to save to pay your
children's school fees. A fire or natural disaster can obliterate
your meager savings. And you may have to spend days riding buses
and walking to the countryside to deliver cash to, or retrieve it
from, a relative. Even if a wire service is accessible, that
means paying steep service fees.

The poor rely on analog currency because many are going unbanked. As long as banks keep up monthly
fees and balance minimums, don't expect this to change.

Wolman explains the bank's side: "It has never been profitable to
put bank branches in the slums and rural villages where poor
people live, while balance minimums and the time required to get
to and from a branch make old-school banking unrealistic and
unattractive."